Onions dying! (pics)
 

About a third of my Copra onions are dying as shown in the pictures below. The problem is scattered throughout the bed, and the Candy onions in the same bed are hardly affected. They were planted as plants from Dixondale three weeks ago and up until recently were looking fine. I didn't notice the problem during mulching with grass clippings four days ago.

Does anyone know what this may be?

Aw Tom, that is awful and looks so strange, with the leaves still green above them. :(
I looked at this link from omafra [url]http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/95-063.htm[/url] and they talk about two things that can make the leaves turn white - one is herbicide, the other is injury from pelting rain. :surprised:
Could there be herbicide residue in the straw? :?!?:
If so I don't know why Candy would be unaffected.

You may have to dig one up and cut it open to see if there's a neck rot or something of that nature that could explain it.

Dixondale has a page for onion diseases with pictures.
[url]http://www.dixondalefarms.com/diseases[/url]

If you don't find anything there I'd send them a picture and ask. I would imagine they've seen it all.

Thank you Patihum for posting that! I never knew onions could get so many diseases. I like a day when I learn something new.

I didn't think onions could be killed.

Nan

[QUOTE=Patihum;698662]Dixondale has a page for onion diseases with pictures.
[url]http://www.dixondalefarms.com/diseases[/url]

If you don't find anything there I'd send them a picture and ask. I would imagine they've seen it all.[/QUOTE]


This link confirms that onions get powdery mildew. I am not growing any this year in my small yard as I cannot get them far enough away from the tomatoes.

[QUOTE=Patihum;698662]Dixondale has a page for onion diseases with pictures.
[URL]http://www.dixondalefarms.com/diseases[/URL][/QUOTE]

Patihum, thank you for posting that link.

Tom, I sure hop you find out what the problem is and can save the crop!

I sent pictures of my onion plants to Dixondale and they suggested it was a fungal disease, specifically Downy Mildew, and sent me this link of onion diseases:

[url]https://www.seminis.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Onion-Disease-Guide.PDF[/url]

My symptoms do not appear, at least to me, to match Downy Mildew, Basal Rot, Powdery Mildew, or any other diseases that I have looked at online. There is no mold, spores, fungus or other deposits on the leaves or bulblets, and the roots look white and healthy. It is just the leaves that are affected.

I do not use any herbicides on my lawn so the grass clipping mulch should be fine. Likewise neighbors as I am surrounded on three sides by cow pastures and the forth is woods.

At first I only saw the white patches at the base on the leaves, but now I noticed some patches higher up the leaves (see new photos).

Interestingly, if appears some of the affected plans continue to have healthy leaves, and some might even be putting up new leaf growth - hard to say
for sure.

About a hundred or so plants are randomly affected out of the 450 I planted or about 25%. 90% of the affected plants are Copra with only maybe a dozen Candy.

Dixondale was very fast to respond and offered to send me new plants for free, even though this was not their fault. Great customer service! My new onion plants are arriving tomorrow and I'll plant them in a remote location. Mean time I haven't given up totally on the existing bed. We'll see.

Tom

Tom those pics are seriously wierd!!! White stripes with green on either side? Very very strange. :?!?: I'm glad to hear Dixondale was helpful though. :yes:

I would suggest clipping off the effected leaves.
Of course for me every treatment means amputation.
Good thing I wasn't a medical doctor.

Runny nose?
Amputation.:))

For plants, the general rule is if it's not looking good, cut it off. I'd cut the affected leaves off. It's great that it's not killing them.

Nan

Man, that's the pits about your onions. Have you sent these photos to your extension service? They're usually pretty good about identifying stuff, at least ours is.

Thanks so much for that Seminis link. It's awesome!

Here's hoping they grow out of it, especially since they're sending up new foliage.

Maybe this?:

Page 37: [URL="https://www.seminis.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Onion-Disease-Guide.PDF"]https://www.seminis.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Onion-Disease-Guide.PDF[/URL]

white tip
Symptoms:
Initial infection mainly occurs at the leaf
tip and less frequently between the leaf
tip and mid-leaf. Disease first appears
as water-soaked spots that expand into
lesions. Lesion margins remain watersoaked
as affected tissue wilts and
dries to the bleached white appearance
for which this disease is named. When
environmental conditions favor disease
development, secondary lesions elongate
to the base of the leaf. Crop losses are
generally due to reduced plant weight
in leek and storage rot of onion bulbs.
Total crop loss may occur under severe
disease pressure.
Conditions for
Disease Development:
Phytophthora porri oospores can survive
for years in soil. High humidity and
rainfall combined with low temperatures
[15°C (59°F)] favor disease development.
This disease tends to be more severe
in fields with poor drainage. Once the
disease is established, wind-borne and
water-splashed sporangia and zoospores
are easily spread.
Control:
Avoid sprinkler irrigation. Rotation to nonhost
crops helps to reduce soil inoculum
levels and losses from this disease. Some
fungicides may be efficacious during early
stages of infection

That disease guide is amazing... PH, I think you hit the bingo.

I guess that rounds out the applause for removing infected leaves! :?: Anything with the name "Phytophthora" is darn scary and unwelcome. Favored by rain and cool weather, I will certainly be keeping my eye out for this one.

Dixondale is A+. Just planted my onions, shallots, leeks from them day
before yesterday...

It does look fungal but nothing I've seen before.

I don't see mention of controls. Potassium bicarbonate? Copper?

[QUOTE=GoDawgs;699467]Have you sent these photos to your extension service? They're usually pretty good about identifying stuff, at least ours is. [/QUOTE]

Yes, and I am awaiting their reply. I know the man in charge and if I don't hear from him soon I'll drop by his office in town.

[QUOTE=PureHarvest;699470]Maybe this?:

Page 37: [URL="https://www.seminis.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Onion-Disease-Guide.PDF"]https://www.seminis.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Onion-Disease-Guide.PDF[/URL]

white tip
[/QUOTE]

I thought of white tip, but these white patches started at the base of the plants and I don't recall seeing any "water-soaked spots that expand into lesions". I'll look closer.

Tom I had the same thing around 12 years ago and it hit both my onions and garlic. I lost almost my whole crop. It returned the next year and I sprayed with the diluted bleach spray and stopped the worst of it before it got too bad again. I did notice that it started soon after or during periods of heavy rain with lots of splash back. I now make sure my onions are heavily mulched with bark fines or cypress mulch and it hasen't happened again. I also now spray my onions with Daconil a few times and with the diluted bleach spray if I am spraying anything else with it. I also will spray them with a copper spray if I am using that on something else.

I feel for you because it was a horrible experience for me and turned my beautiful bed of garlic and onions into a stinking mess. Hopefully you won't have it as bad as I did. It seemed like the plants just melted and became a soupy, rotting, slimy mess.

Good luck.

Bill

[B][COLOR="Blue"]Hallelujah![/COLOR][/B] My onions have risen from the dead...MIRACLE! Praise the onion goddess!

Only about 10% are dead or doomed, and another 15% are significantly affected but putting out strong new growth. The great news is that some 75% have recovered and appear to be growing on schedule!

Our local Cooperative Extension agent diagnosed the malady as a fungal disease, likely initiated my the 5" rain storm we had a couple of weeks ago during some cool weather, causing some water soaked lesions. Lately it has been warm and dry, which has helped the onions recover. The agent said they may very well grow out of it, but also said not to plant in the same location for the next two years. I can manage that!

Dixondale was so helpful and reshipped the order for free, but since these are now some six weeks late I wouldn't expect full sized onions from them. Nevertheless I'll plant them, and hope my main crop continues to recover and yield larger ones.

Garden back on track. The cellar seedlings are all in the hardening off process, and all warm crops will be out within a week.

Great news.
Let the late ones die back and then when it cools off this fall let them start growing again.
Pick as desired after that if you want.

Or just have a crop of big green onions.

They're looking great Tom. :yes: Some fungal diseases just need one set of conditions to flourish and when the weather changes they're done. Glad to see it.

I'm so glad to hear that the crisis is over and that things are back on track. Hopefully you will have two nice crops of onions this year.

Tom, I noticed your garlic next to the onions.
You’re seem to have the yellow tips that mine do.
I still can’t figure that out. Dry, wet, to little or too much of a nutrient.
Every year it happens. They say it doesn’t effect yield. But I always wonder what it is.

[QUOTE=PureHarvest;700454]Tom, I noticed your garlic next to the onions.
You’re seem to have the yellow tips that mine do.
I still can’t figure that out. Dry, wet, to little or too much of a nutrient.
Every year it happens. They say it doesn’t effect yield. But I always wonder what it is.[/QUOTE]

Yeah yellow tips on garlic come and go, I don't worry much about them. Sometimes a dose of nitrogen seems to green them up, but mine get a [U]lot [/U]of nitrogen throughout the growing season so I doubt they are ever nitrogen deficient. The Estonian Red are more prone to this than the other varieties.

Super news, Tom! I'm so glad they're recovering. Sometimes miracles do happen. :lol:

And that's some good sturdy garlic you have there. :yes:

Glad to hear the recovery is in full swing. Nice looking garden too!

Glad to hear the weather dried up for you and you were able to get back on track. When it hit mine the rain didn't let up for two weeks and by the time it stopped it was all over but the crying.

Bill